Letter: Fall River's misguided expectations with casino

Sunday

Mar 23, 2014 at 8:00 PM

Who in their right mind would not want to have a casino bring in badly needed jobs to Fall River? But, for anyone who realistically understands whether or not it is possible, the chance of that happening is slim to say the least. Nevertheless, there seems to be enough people in this poor city who are still willing to listen to our mayor.

Who in their right mind would not want to have a casino bring in badly needed jobs to Fall River? But, for anyone who realistically understands whether or not it is possible, the chance of that happening is slim to say the least. Nevertheless, there seems to be enough people in this poor city who are still willing to listen to our mayor.

In my opinion, he continues to run this city like it’s his “political toy.” Since Will Flanagan was first elected, he has yet to come up with a logical plan to move this city forward. He is now in his third term as mayor. This is the man who ran on the platform that the “rainwater tax” was illegal. Going into his second term he said he had learned from his mistakes. Before he could take the oath of office for a second time, he appointed a lieutenant who was not qualified to be the new fire chief as a way of saying thank-you for his political support.

The mayor has never been a strong advocate for the property off Route 24 that has been set aside to be an industrial park for the city. Instead, he wanted to use the biopark land for a casino, but lost that battle in court. I don’t believe that the mayor and his administration know how to revive our community by attracting big businesses to come here. And, so he has elected to once again throw the casino card.

Unfortunately, this community is so desperate to see something positive happen, people are ready to just follow along. If the mayor fails, he will blame the governor, the state Legislature and our representatives for not supporting Fall River.

Before that happens, and I’m betting it will, it is time that we stop this foolishness, quit wasting time, and start demanding that our elected officials come up with realistic solutions to our economic issues. If they can’t do the job, we need to start voting for new faces. It is about time this community recognizes it is our only hope.